Today, security is at the forefront of Internet users' concerns. As stores, banks, credit card companies, health care providers, etc., have turned to the Internet for providing consumers or clients access to services and products, more personal information is being exchanged, stored and accessed over the Internet than ever before. Specifically, the healthcare field is beginning to transition to providing patients access to medical information, or communicating with patients regarding medical information, over the Internet. Some healthcare providers use electronic mail (“email”) as a means of communication. However, such a means is unsecure and may not meet all privacy requirements, such as state and federal requirements, e.g., those imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
For example, HIPAA Title II instructs the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services to create national standards for processing electronic healthcare transactions. Additionally, “secure” electronic access to health data is required by HIPAA in order for healthcare providers to remain in compliance with privacy regulations set by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Briefly, HIPAA Title II includes the following standards and rules: National Provider Identifier Standard; Transactions and Code Sets Standards; HIPAA Privacy Rule; and HIPAA Security Rule. Specifically, the HIPAA Security Rule sets national standards for securing patients data that is stored or transferred electronically. Thus, in order to provide personal health information via electronic transmission and maintain compliance with at least HIPAA, a system having a secure method of receiving personal health information from one or more healthcare providers and a secure method of providing the personal health information to the corresponding patient is needed.
Additionally, healthcare providers often correspond with patients using similar text (e.g., similar text may be used in letters corresponding to office visits, upcoming appointments, referrals, etc.). Thus, healthcare providers continually waste time by repeatedly creating the same messages.